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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894549">Roll the Dice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, Shinigami Kurosaki Karin, Somewhat, Work Up For Adoption</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:46:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>19,578</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurosaki Karin. Age 12. Hair color: black. Eye color: dark gray. Occupation: Middle School Student. Special Skill: the ability to see ghosts/ Substitute Shinigami.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kuchiki Rukia &amp; Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Ichigo &amp; Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Ichigo &amp; Visored, Kurosaki Karin &amp; Kurosaki Yuzu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the alarm clock rang, on most days Kurosaki Karin was already awake. Today was no different and the girl strolled over, pressed the off button and went back to dressing, a slight scowl decorating her features. Middle School, unlike elementary school, demanded a uniform. To her soccer loving, often dirty and sportswear self that translated into putting on one of those damnable skits and being mostly restricted from her more...unusual habits. Or else.</p>
<p>But what she disliked most about them was that they reminded everyone, including Karin, that she was a girl. It was a bother. Her hard work of being respected and treated as an equal by her soccer playing companions went down the drain. Oh, they still followed her word, but nowadays it took a glare from her and an ominous shadowing of her eyes.</p>
<p>It made everyone remember that she was a girl and those tended not to be all that good or effective with violence.</p>
<p>Karin was an exception, of course, but the stereotype sometimes tended to overwhelm Karin's own aura of respect-me-or-die.</p>
<p>And that wasn't the worst of it. The worst was that the school's soccer team was an all boys group till she came along and that her teammates didn't particularly like being shown up by a junior member and a girl to boot. The coach was only slightly better, having mostly just no idea how to deal with a girl on the team. Soccer was her beloved hobby and she liked it and Middle School sucked the fun out of it. Karin wasn't going to stop, though. Her goal for the future was to become professional.</p>
<p>"Ah! Karin-chan. Here, for today." Broken out of her moody thoughts, Karin glanced at the orange, cloth-wrapped box in her twin's hands and muttered her thanks.</p>
<p>Kurosaki Yuzu, despite being the youngest in their family of four, was the sole reason the house wasn't buried in dust and food consisted of more than convenience store rations. She was also, in Karin's opinion, as different from her as day was from night. Karin was the night.</p>
<p>Where Karin was brash and rude, Yuzu was soft spoken and sweet. Where Yuzu was considerate, Karin was violent. The differences were even mirrored in their appearance. Karin's dark hair and dark eyes were a stark contrast to Yuzu's light brown hair and brown eyes.</p>
<p>In other words, her sister was <em>cute</em>.</p>
<p>It fit Yuzu well and Karin didn't have a problem with it. The thing was though, that Yuzu was the kind of girl that attracted boys. Karin did <em>not</em> like that. Filthy boys had better stay away from her little sister.</p>
<p>Which was also a reason why Karin was so irked her though-girl reputation was slighted by school rules.</p>
<p>On the other hand however, Yuzu was still very much stalker free (Karin checked) and even admirers did so from a save distance. Very save distance.</p>
<p>"Where is the Old Man?" Karin asked, finally noticing that she didn't need to fend of a good-morning hug and have-a-nice-day crushing.</p>
<p>"Tou-chan said he was visiting an old friend," Yuzu reminded her, placing the left over from breakfast in the sink. "He wanted to visit them before opening the clinic."</p>
<p>"I see." Drowning a glass of juice, Karin wiped her lips with her sleeve, earning a stern look from Yuzu, who also did the laundry. Karin ignored her with practiced ease, put her glass away, glanced at the clock and went for the door. "Are you done yet? I don't want to be late." Even as she said so, her eyes drifted towards the empty space to the left of her shoes.</p>
<p>Yuzu giggled, but sat down on her right and slipped her own shoes on. "Everyone is late once sometime. It's normal."</p>
<p>Normal.</p>
<p>"Yes, well, but you never know when we will really be late. So better save that one time."</p>
<p>Yuzu closed the door behind them, nodding admirably as she turned the key and locked the door.</p>
<p>Normal.</p>
<p>Karin's life was very normal. A father, a sister, an elder brother, a nice house, an education with the beginnings of annoying teenage drama, normal hobby, normal troubles, normal likes and dislikes. </p>
<p>If she had to name one thing that wasn't normal about her life, though....</p>
<p>Her brother.</p>
<p>At sixteen her brother was tall, lean and bright colored hair that was an exact copy of their deceased mother's, wore a permanent scowl on his face that tended to scare a lot of people and that Karin did her best to copy, was overprotective of them, an honors student at High School, and the local boss thug. Theoretically.</p>
<p>He was a walking contradiction, but somehow made it look like he wasn't. Like how he was mature, but still carried around a stuffed black animal.</p>
<p>He also tended to be absent for most of the day, come back late and leave early, despite loving to spend time with them.</p>
<p>But really, other than that there was nothing unusual about her or her family and that suited Karin just fine. Thinking of herself as practical, she had long figured out that anything not ordinary tended to carry a whole lot of trouble behind it that was just not worth it.</p>
<p>That was her.</p>
<p>
  <tt>Kurosaki Karin. Age 12. Hair color: black. Eye color: dark gray. Occupation: Middle School Student. Special Skill: none to speak off.</tt>
</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Kuchiki Rukia's day had started long before the sun had risen, and it suited her just fine. Lights of the modern world and the moon was enough to provide her with sight. The tall pillars humans were so fond of building with their glowing tops were very helpful in this regard as well.</p>
<p>Stiff paper in her hands crinkled as she read through the dark lines and the corners of her mouth tugged down when she once again glanced away from the solid, but very stiff instructions to lay her eyes on the human town now her responsiblity.</p>
<p>In the end though, her frown evened out and acknowledged her orders in a clear voice to a black butterfly.</p>
<p><em>Still,</em> she thought as she slid through the air, <em>how odd.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Hey, come on. I'm only asking for a little."</em>
</p>
<p>To be honest, Karin liked normal not because, well, she<em> l</em><em>iked </em>Normal. She liked it rather because normal meant there wasn't much troublesome. It was trouble (and annoyance) that she liked to avoid. Hench Karin tried to stick to normal, because even with that line, she just never seemed to have her peace.</p>
<p>Part of that was definitely Karin's fault. With her brother as a role model (the other available being her father and that just <em>wasn't</em> happening even if hell froze over) Karin tended to respect authority as long as it it didn't cross her.</p>
<p>Being like that, was it so strange she dreaded how things would look if she didn't at least <em>strife </em>for normal?</p>
<p>(As fruitless as it was.)</p>
<p>
  <em>"Please, cutie. I'm begging ya."</em>
</p>
<p>Glancing out the window, Karin sighed. The weather was great today, but even at prospect of fun training, her mood just didn't want to rise.</p>
<p>
  <em>"Oi! Ya brat! I'm talking to ya. I know ya bitch can see me!"</em>
</p>
<p>Absently Karin wondered what her father, brother and sister would have to say about how large her Vocabulary of Curses had grown just today. And how much the responsible party could be made to suffer....</p>
<p>Her peasant musings were interrupted by two hands and what she identified to be the hilt of a sharp sword cutting across her vision.</p>
<p>Karin took one look and promptly focused her brain back to the direction (as her sight was blocked by a not-supposed-to-be-there body) of the black board, the teacher and calculus that Ichi-nii was so much better at explaining.</p>
<p>Because a black butterfly didn't flutter in the class room, a samurai-dressed girl with sword didn't keel on her desk, the remains of a punk didn't disappear into a sea blue light.</p>
<p>....disappear...?</p>
<p>Well, that was nice and Karin, against her instincts, let curiosity get the better of her and her denial-wall lowered as she considered the pros and cons of talking to a girl that was able to get rid of Karin's invisible bothers. The decision was taken from her hands when the black haired girl stepped out and<em> through</em> the window, disappearing.</p>
<p>
  <tt>Kurosaki Karin. Age 12. Hair color: black. Eye color: dark gray. Occupation: Middle School Student. Special Skill: <strike>denying (the ability to see ghosts)</strike> none to speak of.</tt>
</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Rukia hasn't had a good day. Far from the easy assignment this was supposed to be, she had run into a Plus at least every two streets and in the last twelve hours, some of them extraordinary 'lively'.</p>
<p>The more the shinigami thought about it, the stranger it was. If this town had a Plus record as far above average as it looked to be like at the moment, then this ought to be neither a standard investigation nor as Hollow free as it had been so far. The soul eating monsters should, and by all means would, be turning this town into a hunting ground.</p>
<p>But she hadn't even seen a one yet.</p>
<p>This town was...strange.</p>
<p>Rukia felt blinded in a way she hadn't since she had learned Sensing half a century ago. Currently it felt akin to trying to see a fish in a swamp. Even more, Rukia couldn't tell what caused this abnormality. Further, her contact to Soul Society was fleeting; her request for a revision of her orders had not yet been met with a reply.</p>
<p>Clicking her soul phone open, the noble frowned delicately at the warning lights displayed. It had been showing the same alarm signs since she had first set foot in the realm of the Living. It read an abnormal density of spirit particles; equivalent of a higher spiritual being, but the location couldn't be pinpointed. The phone wasn't doing its secondary function of marking Pluses either, same as her senses; not even when she was standing right in front of one.</p>
<p>Rukia had long since bypassed having a bad feeling.</p>
<p>So far, everything that could go wrong, was going wrong.</p>
<p>The soul of an old woman faded away and reflexively Rukia checked the display of her device.</p>
<p>Only this time, it yielded a red mark.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>The samurai-ghost girl had left Karin's mind not five minutes after her appearance with the assumption of never seeing her again. So she was reasonably surprised when on that very same day, a couple hours later, the oddity showed up in front of her again.</p>
<p>This time though, the place and manner of 'meeting' was far less neutral and Karin barked out a "Watch it!" at her while quickly slipping a shirt over her head.</p>
<p><em>Goddamn it,</em> she cursed, usually they had at least a small sense of privacy left. This girl not so much, walking through a wall of the changing room, where Karin was, obviously, in the middle of changing into her training uniform. To top it off, without even an excuse, ghost girl flatly ignored her.</p>
<p>Karin ground her teeth together and her eye gained a twitch when the ghost girl turned her back to Karin, mumbling something that sounded vaguely like "around here" under her breath and playing around with a <em>mobile phone</em> in her hand.</p>
<p>Now, normally Karin was perfectly willing to ignore and deny the existence of any and all beings that only she (and her siblings) could see but that was on the basis of ignore-them-before-they-get-more-annoying.</p>
<p>She did the obvious: the ghost got kicked in the back (in true Ichi-nii fashion).</p>
<p>The startled spluttering she got in return was gratifying. Karin casually went back to changing.</p>
<p>"You-you ki-kicked me?" The girl gained a shock-white expression. "<em>You can </em>see <em>me</em>?"</p>
<p>Karin grunted, as she dropped her spikes to the floor with a clack to make her point. "No use pretending. That is why you are here, isn't it. Barging in on someone while changing isn't the best way to go about begging favors ghost-girl. Exorcist or no."</p>
<p>Ghost girl was not regaining the ability to speak quickly, her mouth opening and closing long enough for Karin to slip into and tie her shoes, until the pale face finally morphed into an expression of indignation. "Ghost-girl? Favor?....<em>Begging</em>?" She sounded mortally offended. Karin didn't even bother glancing at her. "Kuchikis <em>don't beg</em>!"</p>
<p>"...That's great. Then leave me alone and don't barge in when people are changing. I'm busy, unlike dead people."</p>
<p>Karin went back to ignoring the spectral being (which was just getting around to picking herself up from being chucked on the floor), stuffed her clothes into a locker and smacked it symbolically shut.</p>
<p>Turning her back to the not-normal with a sense of resolute finality, Karin, having much practice in ordering her thoughts about (needed to be good at denial), switched gears to non-supernatural things. Or attempted to anyway, because the samurai girl was suddenly standing right in front of her, not two feet away as if she had been there the whole time, frowning and Karin, tensing, was uncomfortably reminded how this person was not like any ghost she had ever met before. A noticeable lack of chain for one, the...aura...for another.</p>
<p>Still, Karin ground her teeth, blood rushing in her head at the thought of how this <em>was not happening.</em> (Ghosts did not exist!)</p>
<p>A hand dropped on Karin's head coupled with an intense stare. Were Karin's temper not overriding every other reaction, she would have surely jumped out of her skin at least twice and would be getting more and more unnerved and borderline scared by the fixed, assessing look, the muttering, like she was an animal in a Zoo. As it was, blood rushed in Karin's ears and toned every word <em>out</em>.</p>
<p>Her fist clenched, then dug into a solid stomach with all power she could put behind it. "What the hell!? Who do you think you are?"</p>
<p>Ghost-girl, only slightly taller and older than Karin, doubled over, eyes wide more from surprise than actual pain.</p>
<p>Karin was just getting started. "You can't just brag in here and-"</p>
<p>"Way of binding-"</p>
<p>"-treat-"</p>
<p>"-One: Sai!" With a sharp gesture of two fingers, Karin's arms, including her raised fist, snapped together behind her back. Hard.</p>
<p>For a brief second there was silence.</p>
<p>Irrationally, Karin's first thought was she had to learn how to get out of an arm hold. A moment later, she realized no one was actually holding her in place. Her arms felt like they had been nailed to her back.</p>
<p>Pushing out a breath through her nose, pressing her teeth painfully together, Karin attempted to get a hold on her temper. "Alright," she ground out eventually, glaring at the infuriatingly smug looking samurai-magic girl. "You have my attention."</p>
<p>The gray eyed girl pressed her lips together in a shaming attempt to hid a haughty look. She motioned Karin to sit down.</p>
<p>Before Karin could come to a decision, there was a loud knock on the door. "Oi! Kurosaki! What's taking you so long?"</p>
<p>Grudgingly and stiffly, not liking how easy it was, Karin sat down.</p>
<p>The floor was cold underneath her.</p>
<p>A prologue of things yet to come.</p>
<p>"Start without me!" She called back to her teammate.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>"So what you are telling me is," Karin repeated flatly, staring at the 'art' the other had created for Karin's better understanding, "that you are a Shinigami, that it is your job to send Pluses -ghosts and souls- to the afterlife called Soul Society -what kind of name is that?- and that part of your work is to slay monsters, which happen to be called Hollows. Yes?"</p>
<p>The self-proclaimed Death God nodded, proud stratification in her features that she had by no means a right to feel. Not for that 'explanation', not for those....'drawings'. Though they were kind of funny.</p>
<p>"Great," said Karin. "Very nice. Now untie me. I have training to get to." Karin struggled to her feet (not so easy with hands tied behind her back), staring down at Ghost-girl expectantly, who sat there like they were having a freaking tea party. When her arms still couldn't move after a few moments of waiting, the twin's patience ran out, and Karin lifted her leg and kicked the door handle down. The door crashed open. She'd just tell her team she was trying a new training exercise for the off chance she'd ever loose her arms. They'd buy that, maybe they wouldn't. At this point Karin couldn't care less.</p>
<p>Two steps out in the corridor, the insane ghost-girl's voice called after her. "Wait, wait, wait! Where are you going? Don't you have questions?" In a few quick steps, (Karin noted they hardly made a sound) the other had caught up to her, with a twist of a wrist, Karin's arms were free to move again.</p>
<p>The living girl rubbed her wrists sourly, debating for a quick second to go back to her denial-mindset. The thought flew out the window quickly, because insane, dead and who knew what else, the ghost at least had some magic that was <em>not</em> part of her imagination. "I would maybe," Karin retorted, "if it had anything to do with me." She sped up her steps, more determined than ever to <em>get away</em> from any and all things only she could see.</p>
<p>Kuchiki Rukia -that was her name, coldly said for some reason, as if she'd expect Karin to have some kind of reaction- was having none of it and followed her yet again, the kind of baffled expression on her face that Karin saw often enough when people first met her dad (that was not a happy comparison), mixed with some kind of disbelieving confusion. "You can see ghosts. You can talk to them. You can <em>touch</em> them. You can touch <em>me</em>!" As if that were such an extraordinary thing. "And you are only human!"</p>
<p>Karin whirled around, glaring filthily as she poked the taller girl in the chest, punctuating her words. "Listen. I don't know who you are. I don't know <em>what</em> you . And you know what? I don't <em>care</em>. I have seen ghosts for so <em>long</em> I don't remember what it was like without them <em>bothering</em> me or Ichi-nii <em>day in day out</em>. And I have never seen any of you - <em>you Shinigami</em>. Nor of any of these monsters that you <em>claim</em> to exist. What's <em>more</em>? No matter what the truth, it has <em>nothing</em> to do with me." Karin straightened, and spat, "so leave me <em>alone</em>."</p>
<p>Ghost-girl's face blanked. She had not stopped Karin's rant full of bland disgust and rejection. But now, when Karin was once again attempting to draw a line, she reacted and caught Karin's wrist in an iron hold. Though not painfully.</p>
<p>Suddenly her eyes warmed, and her voice when she spoke was kind. (It irked Karin, because she was not some kid to be pitied.) "I truly apologize for the inconvenience I cause, <em>however</em>, "she stressed sternly, cutting off Karin's interruption before it took place, "you are not unaffected. You are able to touch me and that indicates an extraordinary high amount of spiritual energy. Hollows feed on humans and souls like you." Ghost-girl seemed less like a girl and more like a woman with every heartbeat. "I do not know why, with your obvious power, you have never witnessed one of my kind, nor why you have survived until now without knowing about Hollows. This town is odd in a lot off ways," she said, explaining as if it cleared everything up. Karin was tempted to rip her hand away.</p>
<p>"But fact is that right now, I have been lead here. The manifestation of a Hollow has been predicted. Right here. And," her look turned strangely sympathetic, and maybe somewhat sad as well, "I have no doubt you are its prey. If you go anywhere right now, out of my presence, then I will be unable to protect you."</p>
<p>Now Karin did twist her hand free. Samurai-girl let her.</p>
<p>Abruptly sighing, her pent up emotions left her enough to let her consider and Karin ran a hand through her hair. Kuchiki watched her, afraid of another outburst; violent or otherwise.</p>
<p>Karin was a lot of thing, but suicidal or (suicidally) careless did not belong to them. She took another calming breath. "Alright, alright," Karin heaved, "lets assume I believe you, which I'm not saying I do, here is what you are gonna do. You are invisible to others, that means you have no problem following me even in broad daylight. Do that. If by the end of the day I have not seen one of these...Hollow things, you leave me alone. And in return I will admit you are not just a ghost."</p>
<p>Samurai-girl -Kuchiki, Karin! At least learn the name of your stalker- frowned, the expression looking subdued, flat, held-back, but eventually she nodded a resigned agreement.</p>
<p>Then her entire demeanor <em>shifted</em>.</p>
<p>It was the only way to describe it.</p>
<p>If Karin hadn't been convinced there was at least some truth to the woman's words, just from the way she felt different from anything Karin had ever encountered, this would have certainly cracked doubt into Karin's denial.</p>
<p>Before Karin's eyes, the black haired, black dressed apparition seemed to just plain <em>drain</em> out of character. The posture gained an air of ease that was only covering for abnormal alertness, and the dark eyes lost a great part of their warmth, replacing it with sharpness.</p>
<p>(Superhuman, not just supernatural.)</p>
<p>It reminded Karin of a cat.</p>
<p>And while she still didn't know how much of the tale was imagination, how much was truth, Karin was at least convinced then and there, that Kuchiki took her 'job' very seriously.</p>
<p>Karin just sighed again, internally bemoaning what kind of trouble she <em>knew</em> this was going to turn out to be.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Kuchiki Rukia had, for a number of reasons, stopped using less...dignified...words, but currently she was falling out of her fifty-year old habit of swearing and a great number of her words from her time in Rukongai was resurfacing fast. She imagined if she were to write that in her report, it would get her thrown out of the Gotei 13.</p>
<p>As she watched the human girl play around with a ball and fellow humans, Rukia let her eyes drift towards the sky. Hollows after all tended to appear from there and now, when she couldn't rely on her Sensing she had to trust her eyes. The more time she spend thinking about it, the more she felt like she was....being blocked.</p>
<p>How someone or something could do that first without her noticing, then without any more signs telling signs, and then at long distance, while keeping the block on her stable was not something Rukia had ever believed possible. How someone or something could manage to block her Soul Phone, an independent and technological creation, at the same time was also only something that could be done by the Twelfth Division.</p>
<p>And that was not even going into the motives someone somewhere could possibly have to make an effort for something that was, for all intents and purposes, not even worth it. The inability to sense was, when it came down to it, hardly more than an annoyance after all.</p>
<p>But if no one was blocking her, then that meant the problems Rukia was experiencing were not focused around her, but around the town. And how the hell was that <em>possible</em>? It was even less likely than the, for lack of better term, conspiracy theory.</p>
<p>She had noticed that in some parts of the town she felt less blind, but she didn't know what to make of it. What it meant.</p>
<p>The human child was so far the only clue she had. Running into reiatsu sensitive humans was unusual to say the least. That Rukia met one in a town that had bypassed strange (by far), was only one more thing on the list of things that just plain <em>didn't make any sense</em>.</p>
<p>Rukia wasn't stupid.</p>
<p>Soul Society hadn't responded yet either.</p>
<p>But Rukia also couldn't just head back, abandon her post, disgrace the Kuchiki name because she felt slightly nervous and had nothing more to show for it than a bit of complications.</p>
<p>Yet again Rukia's eyes sought the human girl.</p>
<p>She wasn't tall, her hair was black, eyes dark gray and for her thin statue, she had a violent temper to show. Rukia was reminded of Renji with whom she had hardly talked in years.</p>
<p>Fierce was the word that came to mind.</p>
<p>Rukia regretted she had to pull a girl that just wanted to live her life into her problems, but if all went well they would not be interacting much longer. And Rukia would make her forget. Pulling humans into affairs of the afterlife was illegal and the Nobel had no intention to break the law. </p>
<p>In the future Rukia will reflect back at her resolution of that moment and take no delight at the irony.</p>
<p>In the present however, Rukia was getting steadily more alarmed as her ward abandoned the playing ground to the shock of her playmates and Rukia's hand went to steady her katana, taking off into a run after the girl. She didn't dare use shunpo at this time for too great distances, not that she needed. After a couple of seconds she had caught up.</p>
<p>"What are you doing?" Rukia yelled at her, the girl not slowing down. "Where are you going?"</p>
<p>The hand Rukia reached out with was harshly slapped away and a panicked narrow eyed hot glare pierced into Rukia. "Shut up!<em> Shut up! </em>Can't you <em>hear </em>it?"</p>
<p>....<em>What?</em></p>
<p>Reaching out again, this time grasping the girl firmly by the shoulder, Rukia forced her to a stop, quickly whirling her around to face Rukia. The quick reaction of a fist to the face was not what Rukia expected (she probably should have), but she was quick enough to dodge.</p>
<p>Then she heard it and it chilled her to the bone.</p>
<p>Rukia whirled, loosening Sode no Shirakyuki in her sheath.</p>
<p>It was close. The howling of the Hollow penetrated the air, carrying an echo around with it, but she still didn't see it. Scanning, Sensing nothing turned up anything. She muttered a mild cures.</p>
<p>And a moment later she finally noticed the lack of presence behind her and she whirled around again. The human girl was running towards a the building, ignoring the calls of even her human friends.</p>
<p>....How had she noticed the Hollow before Rukia? How had a human noticed a Hollow before a shinigami?</p>
<p>Pushing the thought aside, Rukia stepped forward, crossing distance faster than the eye could see. She reached out again, taking hold of the small body and not letting go again. "What is wrong with you," she yelled. "I told you to stay close! Or I can't protect you!"</p>
<p>The girl struggled, getting more desperate and angry. It wasn't fear. She wasn't running because she was afraid. At least not for herself. "Shut up! Let go of me! My sister is in there!"</p>
<p>Rukia didn't let go. "She is safe. I told you, you are the target!"</p>
<p>Head shaking in denial, gray eyes glaring at were wide in fear, and Rukia had to put more force in her hold when the girl's hands clawed at her to let go. "My sister is the same! She can see ghosts too!"</p>
<p>Rukia froze. "Wha-"</p>
<p>Boom!</p>
<p>With a sinking feeling in her gut, Rukia watched the remains of a wall explode outwards. The Hollow screeched, and finally Rukia laid eyes on it. It was less beastly than others, hunching over on two legs. It's bone white mask was split open in the middle as its mouth was opened wide. Dust clouded the area.,</p>
<p>"<em>Yuzu!</em>"</p>
<p>Once again, the human had left Rukia behind. She was dangerously close to the Hollow and it's attention turned to her as well. Pausing in its endeavor to eat the little sister.</p>
<p>Rukia reacted on instinct.</p>
<p>Distance shrunk once again, and Rukia drew Sode no Shirayuki through a thick, dark arm of spiritual matter. Blood spluttered out of the wound, the severed appendage, human included, dropped.</p>
<p>
  <em>"Yuzu!"</em>
</p>
<p>Rukia landed on the ground and immediately took up stance in front of the second human. Unconscious, she noted.</p>
<p>Again, the Hollow howled, rearing its head as it waved its severed appendage through the air. Blood rained, obscuring her vision and Rukia tensed. The dangerous thing about Hollows was not their strength, though it was immense. Strength, all shinigami had been taught to deal with.</p>
<p>It was their instincts however, that which defined them, that was dangerous. Instincts were unpredictable. Difficult to counter. Impossible to read. Dedicated the instinct battle? Hunger? Fear?</p>
<p>One second dark blood was in her focus, the next time seemed to freeze. The Hollow's remaining dark fist lashed out to the side, directly at the dark haired girl she had promised to protect. Rukia saw how the girl's eyes widened fear and surprise even as she was in mid motion of her next step.</p>
<p>There was only one thing Rukia could do.</p>
<p>The large fist connected with her back first. Her arms closed around a so much more fragile body an instant later. A split second after that Rukia was flying through the air, guarding the body with her own from the crash she expected. The air was forced out of her lungs as her back collided with hard stone. It was the stone that gave away, but not easily and the damage gathered from a spiritual attack was only amplified. Bones that had been cracked before were certainly broken now.</p>
<p>Rukia coughed. The motion hurt and air seemed to escape her even as she sucked it back in desperately. Blood tasted in her mouth and she knew the tickling sensation running down from her lips to her chin was red. A drop fell, coloring a white cheek. Wide horrified eyes stared up at her and Rukia relinquished her hold enough to allow the child to leave her embrace.</p>
<p>Her voice sounded far away. Rukia saw the girl's lips move, but she had trouble processing the words. Her head pounded.</p>
<p>Fighting against the blurring of her sight she focused over the shoulder of the girl and she saw a great mass move.</p>
<p>All of her instincts screamed in alarm, wanting her to move, but her body painfully refused to obey.</p>
<p>The shadow moved and Rukia's eyes fluttered to the girl. Her hand clenched around Sode no Shirayuki, despite the pain her grip never letting up.</p>
<p>There was only one way out of this.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Karin, possibly for the first time in her life, lost her mind to panic.</p>
<p>First there was this inhuman screeching, vibrating in the air and pounding against her skull.</p>
<p>Then she was running, because she just <em>knew</em> Yuzu was in danger, because while not like her Yuzu still was not normal. (Karin would never forgive herself for having forgotten.)</p>
<p>Next thing she knew Yuzu was about to get eaten by this <em>monster</em>. (This monster that scared her, made her legs stiff, her blood freeze, the hairs at the back of her neck stand, that made her want to <em>run and hide</em> and close her eyes. A monster that made fear pierce into her heart and forced her soul to shudder, that made the air heavy, a scream leave her throat.)</p>
<p>After that she thought there had been a lot of darkly colored liquid -blood-, more screeching, Yuzu lying on the ground, and arms closing around her.</p>
<p>And now she was kneeling in a pile of rubble, watching as blood tickled down the Ghost-girl's -<em>Shinigami</em>- lips, over her chin, down her neck, seeping into the shihakusho, joining other spots of dark wetness and watching as her savior's eyes drifted in and out of focus, not responding to her increasingly desperate pleading. Blood ran out of her black hair, too.</p>
<p>Karin hardly had a scratch.</p>
<p>And she felt <em>pressure</em> behind her coming closer.</p>
<p>"D-do you w-want to sla-y....the...Hollow?" Karin's head snapped away from the wounds to the other's face. The grey eyes were intense and any of Karin's relief at a response drained away. "W-Want to save y-your sister? You-r friends?"</p>
<p>Even before any words properly registered, Karin's head blanked for all but one thing. Save her sister?</p>
<p>
  <em>Always.</em>
</p>
<p>(From bullies, pain, fear....everything.)</p>
<p>There was very little Karin wouldn't do for her siblings. "Yes." He voice was steady in a way it had no right to be with a monster looming at her back.</p>
<p>A weak smile turned at Kuchiki's lips and something flashed in her eyes. Trembling, she lifted her sword arm, directing the gleaming (alluring, hypnotizing) tip towards Karin's body.</p>
<p>"I- I don't know i-if it'll wo-work," the wounded soul whispered. Karin grasped the sword holding hand she tried fruitlessly to hold in the air. It was cold and white. It unnerved Karin in a way that was weaker and at the same time intenser than the instinct fear scratching her skin. "St-stab your heart...with this.</p>
<p>"Become a Shinigami in my place."</p>
<p>Karin swallowed. Her heart beat unnaturally loud in her chest as if protesting the direction Karin's thoughts were taking. No one normal should ever think of trusting the word of a stranger and pierce their heart. Karin tightened her hands around the other's once, then slid them over the hilt, the hand guard, the blade (cold) and closed her hands again. "I'll do it." The words didn't feel like they had left her lips. And maybe they hadn't.</p>
<p>In any case, her intention was understood and the shinigami's pale features (whiter still against black hair and red blood) turned grim. Karin saw her hand close in a death grip around the hilt.</p>
<p>The twelve year old girl, younger and older sister, daughter, looked from the gleaming blade, angled at her chest, to the owner, a bleeding, hurt, p<em>rotecting</em>, shinigami. "Thank you," she said and then thrust the tip into her heart.</p>
<p>And maybe she had been afraid, maybe she hadn't been, maybe she had been exited, maybe she had been numb, maybe it had not been her that had controlled her body. Maybe it had been.</p>
<p>The pain of cold metal piercing her skin, cutting through muscles, the one painful squeeze her heart gave; it all lasted only for an instant. Almost too short for Karin to remember, before her entire being was curled inside out. Everything that Karin had known was pushed way, coldness flooding her and replacing it. Every cell of her body <em>twisted, </em>then snapped back into form almost instantly.</p>
<p>Something broke.</p>
<p>It was difficult to tell what. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>"Goddamn it! Watch it you damn brat!"</p>
<p>"I ain't a brat! Ya stupid?"</p>
<p>"Someone with less vocabulary than an elementary student has no right to call anyone stupid! Brat! Brat! BratBratbratbrat-"</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Only the next thing knew, Karin was kneeling next to a now unconscious and white robed, limb body. (Not dead, not dead, <em>notdead</em>. Already dead.)</p>
<p>For a brief moment, Karin's mind blanked. Then, as she moved -just twitched- maybe to help, maybe to shake her awake, she <em>felt</em> the difference.</p>
<p>It was difficult to describe. Karin felt incredibly light. Not like she was floating, but as if the pull of gravity had lost its meaning for her. Yet at the same time, weight pressed down on her.</p>
<p>Even without being told, she knew where that weight came from and instinctively, she pressed against it.</p>
<p>The monster's movements slowed till they completely stopped.</p>
<p>Shakily Karin rose to her feet, heart thundering in her chest. With every beat her blood seemed to rush faster and faster, leaving the world behind. To Karin, time was gone. The world was still. Silence ruled; every thing she saw, everything she felt was soundless. There were grains and stones cracking from the broken wall. Humans in the distance were moving around agitated, fast, some even approaching even though they shouldn't. Yuzu was lying still, her head rolled to the side, an arm strapped over her stomach. The Hollow was rearing its head and Karin was sure she should be hearing it howl.</p>
<p>But she didn't.</p>
<p>And she didn't care.</p>
<p>She drew a sword tied to her back in fluid motion. As if she had practiced how to draw a wide sword out of a scabbard her entire life. She knew the exact moment when to close her hand, knew the exact moment when she to stop pulling, knew the exact twist of her wrist needed to extract the tip from the sheath.</p>
<p>It was Karin who moved her body, and she did so deliberately. Everything was her move. She felt less like a stranger in her own body than she felt disconnected from the world. She just did things she had never done before and it mattered remarkably little.</p>
<p>She drew a sword. She was faced with a monster that was moving sluggishly. The monster wanted to kill her. The monster wanted to kill Yuzu.</p>
<p>It was the enemy of Karin.</p>
<p>The world made sense. Even if it was standing strangely still.</p>
<p>The weight in her hand was heavy, and Karin's other hand grasped the hilt as well.</p>
<p>She took an experimental step forward. Another, then the angled the sword next to her torso, tip pointed at her enemy. Pushing off in a practiced motion of sprint, Karin had crossed the rubble, the leftover rim of the wall, the meters outside faster than she had ever moved. She did not stop until she was forced to, the resistance growing too great as only a hilt, now poured over with dark liquid, was not not dug into solid matter.</p>
<p>Suddenly the world started moving again.</p>
<p>The monster howled out in pain. Its body, towering over Karin, trashed. Digging her feet into the ground, Karin keeping a death grip on the sword, Karin's simple stab was quickly turning into a violently widened gash. But even then she couldn't hold her place and in one fast jerk, she was flying through the air. Then her head and back, elbows were rushing over hard ground and a part in the back of her mind noticed how utterly insignificant the pain was. (Karin didn't cry, and she had had enough scab wounds, but she always found them the most painful and still grimaced at each and everyone even after years of playing a sport just short of dedicated to them.) How little she noticed of it.</p>
<p>That very same part of her mind took, as Karin was getting to her knees before jumping aside when a giant fist was flying at her, a much more morbid direction. Karin thought how to get in close enough to behead the monster.</p>
<p>She flexed the muscles in her legs and jumped. With a yell she swung the sword down over her head, cutting into the bony white mask, into the head hiding behind it and then further down till resistance no longer slowed her momentum.</p>
<p>Karin fell to her knees, gasping for breath even as she forced her head to tilt upwards.</p>
<p>The monster -Hollow- was breaking apart, falling into pieces. Disappearing.</p>
<p>Karin's eyes automatically sought out the still limb form of her twin, even as blackness stared to invade her sight. Yuzu was save, untouched, and Karin's bones turned to jelly.</p>
<p>
  <tt>Kurosaki Karin. Age 12. Hair color black. Eye color dark gray. Occupation Middle School Student. Special Skill; the ability to see ghosts/ Substitute Shinigami.</tt>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Urahara Kisuke held his fan deceptively innocently in his hands. The rather grim smile he was hiding behind it was less innocent as he glanced from one unconscious soul to the next. A Shinigami. Power transfer to a Kuroaski child.</p>
<p>He wished he could say he was less satisfied with the outcome. But he was very glad how it had worked out.</p>
<p>It was for the best, he reminded himself even as he watched Tessai pick up the powerless soul of the female shinigami and put the Kurosaki girl -Karin- back into her body.</p>
<p>No matter how much he told himself that, it didn't make him feel better nor did it do anything about the sliver of apprehension coiling in the pit of his stomach.</p>
<p>He disappeared with his childhood friend and a soul he was going to instrumentalise for his plans with a quick set of shunpo.</p>
<p>Praying for the best, the safest, the smoothest outcome, he still planned ahead for the worst possible scenario.</p>
<p>That mentality had saved his and a few others' lives once. Hope it'd do so again.</p>
<p>Else the destruction of his shop would be the last of his worries.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>"Say, what do you think has happened to Karin-chan? It's not like her to faint from training. Do you think she is getting sick?"</p>
<p>"I don't know. Maybe we should take her temperature when we get home. It's not like she will admit if she is feeling a bit off."</p>
<p>"....I guess you are right. Lets do that. And I'm going to make some soup today just in case."</p>
<p>"Hm.....Oi, I think she is waking up."</p>
<p>Something warm touched her forehead. Karin sat up with a start, finding herself on a bench near the soccer grounds. Alone except for her siblings leaning over her. The sun was setting. Yuzu's worried, but pleasantly surprised face leaned away from her and a hand retracted to her side. Kneeling next to the youngest, was their brother. The severe frown on his face overshadowed the concern still very clearly painted there as he looked at Karin.</p>
<p>"How are you feeling Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked, not a scratch on her. "I was really worried when the coach called me you fainted during training."</p>
<p>Karin's mouth dropped open, confusion on her lips, but nothing but spluttering left her. "I...I-I didn't-" Faint? Karin didn't faint. She ran away, because Yuzu-"Yuzu!" She exclaimed, grasping her twin by her shoulders. "Are you alright? There was this-" Hollow, feed on souls. Shinigami. "-monster. A Hollow! And it was- it was - it wanted to eat you and-" Karin trailed off. Yuzu was looking at her bemused, expression somewhat torn between alarm and reluctant amusement. Clearly not following.</p>
<p>Karin swallowed, struggling past the feelings closing up her throat.</p>
<p>Glancing at her brother, she saw him standing up, surveying the school grounds, an unreadable expression on his face before his eyes tracked back to her and Karin felt tension automatically leave her body. Her brother had that effect on her. An everything-will-be-fine and you-are-safe and you-are-not-alone feeling that he always gave her. (That the monster Karin was recalling fleetingly was nothing that even her brother could do anything against didn't matter.) A corner of his lips tugged up in a half smile, half smirk. "I thought you were past that age of having nightmares about monsters under the bed," he teased. (His eyes were intense though, and not really focused on her, fluttering around.)</p>
<p>Karin glared on reflex, jumping up and kicking him in the shin. And yeah, so maybe it was a bit pathetic how much she, a twelve year old, needed her only four years older brother, how much she still depended on him, how much of an influence he had on her, but in Karin's defense, the only other reliable person who was not younger than her in their household was their dad.</p>
<p>"...what are you doing here, Ichi-nii?" Karin eventually asked, having obeyed Yuzu to remain sitting for a while longer while she went and informed a teacher that she was alright.</p>
<p>Her brother's eyes, switching target back to her from where they had been following Yuzu's walk to the school building, had lost much of their intensity. But there was a certain amount of wariness in them. "I wanted to walk you home today."</p>
<p>Karin frowned. It wasn't a lie, obviously. Ichigo never lied to them and was terrible at it, but he had a penchant for avoiding questions. Usually it didn't bother Karin. "It's Friday."</p>
<p>"I know." Her brother played with his cell, flipping it open and close, not even looking much at it as he once again gazed around.</p>
<p>"You never come back home after school on Fridays," she reminded him. The pointed look she threw him must have conveyed her meaning well enough, because her brother was suddenly unable to meet her eyes. Karin still added, "we don't see you again till Saturday evenings usually."</p>
<p>When he still refused to give her a better explanation, Karin sighed, following his line of sight. It landed near the part of the school that had broken apart. There were police there, teachers, inspecting the damage. It was the part of the school where the kitchens were. Where Yuzu had her club.</p>
<p>From the corner of her eyes, she watched her brother sharply. Clearly, there was more to this. Ichigo was in their family of supernaturally aware people (dad excepted) the one who carried the blunt of their curse. He had, as far as Karin knew, always seen ghosts, always been able to touch them, always been bothered by them. (Or used to be anyway. For some reason, the ghosts all had sometime decided to bother her instead of him. Probably been put off by his scowl.)</p>
<p>He was -<em>power</em>, stated the Shinigami's voice in her head- the most 'powerful' of the three siblings. Very much so. Karin usually didn't even need to see her brother to know where he was. That counted for a distance of  up to a couple of streets.</p>
<p>When she thought about it, it actually made little sense that with her brother in town any monster looking for cursed people would actually come to Yuzu or Karin first. (Which send a jolt of fear through her. What if one day he didn't come home? What if he had to fight a Hollow and a Shinigami wasn't nearby to save him?)</p>
<p>Maybe that was why she had never seen a Shinigami before? They were all always patrolling around her brother.</p>
<p>"Ichi-nii," Karin began, and she saw the reluctance with which he was willing to face her. "What has happened there?"</p>
<p>"Gas explosion, apparently," her brother said.</p>
<p>"That was no gas explosion." Karin said, staring him in the eye. There was no sign that he believed so either. Karin swallowed. "Did you see a samurai-dressed ghost-girl around here? Black hair, a bit taller than me. She called herself a Shinigami." There! A twitch of an eye. No way he didn't know what Karin was talking about. Karin dug around in her memories. They were all blurry. She remembered the Shinigami lying under her, bloody. The gleaming of a sword....</p>
<p>Karin jumped up, making her brother jump in reflex as well. Patting herself down, glancing at her body, her chest (<em>stabbed her own heart</em>!), over her shoulder, she didn't find any wound, her clothes were still her sports trainers, no shihakusho (though that part might have been addled by her memory), there was no sword strapped to her back. </p>
<p>Karin felt dazed, even as two heavy hands dropped down on her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Ichigo usually wasn't a very affectionate person. Hugs were few and rare, and always awkward. Right now Karin was too out of it to even properly register the contact.</p>
<p>Maybe it had been a dream after all...</p>
<p>It had to be.</p>
<p>But what kind of dream was that?</p>
<p>But it was better to be a dream. Karin didn't want any part in the troubles of ghosts.</p>
<p>Just let it stay a dream....(She begged.)</p>
<p>"Hey," a voice whispered in her ear, uncharacteristically soft. "Calm down. Everything is alright, Karin."</p>
<p>On reflex Karin's hands dug into her brother's shirt, missing the tension in him as she relaxed and let herself <em>believe</em>.</p>
<p>Onii-chan was there.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>From: don't-care</p>
<p>To: whatever</p>
<p>Subject: unknown</p>
<p>Seems like a shinigami has come to town.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Karin spend the rest of the day and the beginning of the next settling back into her normal life. That is to say, she utterly pretended nothing had ever happened to interrupt her state of denial of everything bothersome supernatural. Practically erased it from her mind with a skill that could only be born from years of practice.</p>
<p>As far as Karin was concerned, if everything that had happened yesterday was only a friction of her imagination, then that was perfectly fine. A gas explosion blew up a wall of the school. Karin had had a heatstroke or something during training and passed out. With nothing in between.</p>
<p>If Hollows and Shinigami on the other hand did exist, then they should please exist away from her as they had always done.</p>
<p>If she had in fact not imagined anything at all or just a part of what had happened a Friday afternoon on a usual day in May, then that was fine as well. It had happened, was over and done with, and would never have anything to do with it again. (If the rate of one in twelve years was anything to go by.) If it had happened, if Karin had fought and killed a monster with a sword(as far as she remembered), then that was over and done with as well.</p>
<p>She just had to bury it deep in her mind.</p>
<p>The only thing she had resolved not to deny was the shinigami girl. She had saved Yuzu's (and Karin's) life after all and that was not something that Karin would just let pass.</p>
<p>If it had indeed happened.</p>
<p>So she had decided to keep an eye out for Kuchiki. Since there wasn't much else Karin could (or wanted) to do. She had no idea where shinigami came from, went to, what they did when they didn't exorcise ghosts or slew monsters and so forth.</p>
<p>That had been her resolution.</p>
<p>So she was reasonably shocked when around noon the next day she was called down from her room (doing her homework) because there was a guest for her at the door and that guest turned out to be the very same girl she was still torn if she existed or not. In perfectly normal clothes and a <em>body</em>.</p>
<p>"Oh! Karin! I'm overjoyed to see you again." She had said with such overdone acting (smiling, smiling, eyes flashing) that Karin hadn't believed her eyes for a moment.</p>
<p>Naturally Karin had gaped, speechless and Kuchiki had taken the initiative, taken her by the hand and pulled her away from her house on a 'walk'. A walk that consisted of Kuchiki Rukia talking and explaining about shinigami, ghosts, Soul Society, and Karin's new part time job (Karin's reaction to that bit had been <em>ugly, </em>but in the end she had carved, because she did owe the other girl and it was only temporary and any ghost gone was one pain less to deal with and that almost made it worth).</p>
<p>More questions were popping up in her head every minute and once Karin was done introducing her new 'best friend' who tragically had a tragic family situation and needed a place to stay for some time. Karin was busy thanking all gods she knew (which at the moments actually only was the one girl next to her) that Ichi-nii had taken a walk on his own and was not there during the introduction. He would have n<em>ever </em>bought that bullshit.</p>
<p>Absently, she wondered if shinigami had such a thing called common sense. Maybe they hadn't if that sense was crushed daily by all kind of impossible things. (In the back of her mind Karin feared she might get infected.)</p>
<p>"Don't worry, my beloved daughter! Your friend may stay as long as she wants," the crackpot that Karin was embarrassed to call her father exclaimed, before dutifully reporting about the new family member to the poster of her mother while Yuzu dried her tears and sniffed something about the joy of making an extra bento every morning for somebody so precious.</p>
<p>Karin, not wanting to stay one second longer, dragged the shinigami away, exasperated.</p>
<p>"Your family is very lively," Kuchiki -it's Rukia; can't be calling her 'best friend' by a family name- observed, her handkerchief put away and face wiped of all tears into a curiously interested expression. "Are all humans like this nowadays?"</p>
<p>"No!" Karin shot back on reflex, horrified at the very thought. "...Dad is crazy. Ichi-nii, Yuzu and I try our very hardest not be infected. Don't you<em> dare </em>go copy behavior from him." Eying the third bed already put in her and Yuzu's room (when had that been done?) she added somewhat hopelessly, "just study behavior from books or something."</p>
<p>Nodding seriously, the shinigami in a fraux body (that part still sounded unbelievable) sat down, correctly assuming the middle bed to be hers. "I must admit, though, to being pleasantly surprised at your cooperation. May I ask what made you agreeable from your previous.....very set mind?"</p>
<p>Karin crossed her arms. "You saved Yuzu and me and I owe you for that. I'll survive since it is only temporary and any ghost I can get rid of-"</p>
<p>"-bury-"</p>
<p>"-is fine in my book. They are such a pain," she finished pointedly.</p>
<p>Rukia fixed her with an unreadable look. "...I see." Then she smiled brightly and Karin took a step back as the houseguest tugged a glove on her hand, gaze never leaving Karin. "Then I can start without a problem." She <em>lunged.</em></p>
<p>It was like being stretched, but without pain, before snapping back into form with an electrical shudder.</p>
<p>Karin stared at the body lying at her feet. <em>Her</em> body. Eyes wide, unblinking, <em>not</em> breathing.</p>
<p>"Oi!" She rounded on the one at fault, gearing up for a fight. "What the hell did you do?!"</p>
<p>Rukia sniffed arrogantly, but there was a spark of amusement she tried to keep hidden in her eyes. "I'm teaching you."</p>
<p>"Teaching me? How is this teaching? That's my body there! You just <em>killed</em> me!"</p>
<p>Again, there was no justifiable reaction as the black haired young woman put on a haughty (as if <em>Karin</em> was the one being stupid). "As if I'd do something like that, fool. Take a look." She gestured at Karin. "I just removed you from your body."</p>
<p>As if t<em>hat</em> explained anything. But take a look Karin did anyway. And did a double take. She was wearing a shihakusho (another thing not part of her imagination), straw sandals, and there was a cloth tied diagonally across her torso that already made Karin know what she would see when she turned her head to glance over her right shoulder.</p>
<p>The hilt of a sword.</p>
<p>Naturally, Karin pulled it out, momentarily forgetting about the eyes taking her in. Unlike the one Rukia had had yesterday, this sword was completely straight and of a western style, having a double edged blade and a cross-like hand guard. It was also long; longer than any katana Karin had seen. Curiously she held it out in front of her, comparing their sizes. It went up to her chest.</p>
<p>Despite herself, Karin was fascinated. "Awesome," she muttered. Karin wanted to go about her life with as little trouble as possible, but that was just because ghosts were <em>so</em> <em>annoying</em>. Never let it be said that Karin herself was in fact normal or that she couldn't appreciate interesting happenings. Sharp and pointy swords, especially in her hands, <em>definitely</em> did count as interesting.</p>
<p>She glanced up from it, grinning and eyes bright. "I think this job might not be so bad after all." Let it not be said that Karin wanted normal because she l<em>iked</em> normal. She wanted normal because normal wasn't annoying. She'd throw normal out of the window if she got i<em>nteresting</em> instead. It certainly looked like that.</p>
<p>Muttering caught her attention and Karin, smirking, stowed the word back into its sheath. "You say something?" Karin asked, seeing Rukia's frown and assessing look as she eyed Karin up and down as if searching for something.</p>
<p>"It's nothing," Rukia said, her delicate frown getting a bit stronger still, before she blew out a frustrated breath. "I'd like to teach you how preform a konso, a soul burial, now, but we can't do that without a ghost and despite what you claimed, I don't exactly see a single one here."</p>
<p>Karin blinked. That was true. Her afternoons were most of the time semi-occupied with ignoring ghosts. But those tended to disappear, at least for a little while, when her brother was home. Which meant...."Ichi-nii is back," Karin informed the other, and as soon as the words had left her lips, she became acutely aware of her brother's presence. Karin reeled, the air leaving her lungs in a forced exhale. She sucked in the next breath greedily, trowing up her mental walls high, trying to block her brother out.</p>
<p>It was another thing that was between Karin and Ichigo. Her brother's spiritual presence had become so overwhelming over the years that Karin had had to start blocking him out. Ignoring him, so to speak. Or at least his presence. It was practice that also went into her denial of ghosts. If she didn't focus on Ichigo's spiritual energy, tried to forget it was even there, then Karin didn't feel (painfully) stressed in his presence. If she had to compare it to something, then Karin would say it was like removing a color from the rainbow. If it had never been there, it couldn't be missed. Not exactly a normal mindset, but Karin was not normal either.</p>
<p>It appeared that by leaving her body, by becoming a shingami, her senses were heightened and she had to readjust her filters. Speaking of which. "Oi, how do I get back inside my body? If you really haven't killed me?"</p>
<p>After giving her another odd glance, Rukia picked up Karin's body, dragging it to its feet. "Just step inside."</p>
<p>Karin did, trying not to mind how strange that instruction sounded. Again, she felt stretched before snapping back together. It was a bit disorientating and Rukia needed to balance Karin's weight for a moment until the newly employed substitute shinigami was capable of standing on her own two feet. "That felt weird."</p>
<p>"It is a simple matter of getting used to."</p>
<p>Karin mumbled agreement, rolling her shoulders. Stepping back into her body felt <em>weird</em>. Like she was suddenly wearing a second skin. "Come on," she finally said, opening the door. "I'll introduce you to my brother. He isn't like Yuzu and dad, though, so let me do the talking and just shut...up? Oi, Kuchiki? What's wrong?"</p>
<p>Rukia was suddenly staring off into space, alarm and confusion painted in her face as she leaned in the doorway she hadn't managed to cross."This...this...don't you feel it?"</p>
<p>Karin frowned, puzzled."Feel what?" There wasn't anything worth the kind of reaction Rukia was showing. At least not that she knew.</p>
<p>"This ....reiatsu...", she muttered, a note to her voice that Karin didn't know how to read. Then her eyes suddenly sharpened to some point over Karin's shoulder.</p>
<p>Karin turned."What's-" She honestly didn't know how she would have ended that sentence.</p>
<p>Ichigo stood behind her, having just come up the stair, a glass of water in hand. "Hey, Karin," he greeted, his normal scowl deepening a notch as his eyes landed on the third person in the corridor."That the houseguest?"</p>
<p>Karin grunted, vaguely gesturing with her hand as a semi-introduction. "Kuchiki Rukia. My brother Ichigo." Karin honestly hadn't expected the introduction to go well in the first place, but with the way her brother and her 'employer' were eying each other, Karin had severely underestimated how bad it would go. And Karin hadn't even started on the proper explaining that her brother would need. So she remained silent, swallowing as the air got tenser by the moment.</p>
<p>Finally Ichigo's scowl (not glare; glare was <em>very </em>different) couldn't darken anymore. "...something on my face?" He asked, very clearly wrestling with his irritation to at least <em>try </em>and start this off on a good note. "Just so that you know, Karin," he added darkly, not breaking his staring contest with Rukia, who really was just staring; not glaring frowning or anything. "I didn't buy a single word the Old Man told me. Who is she?"</p>
<p>Karin resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her brother's ridiculous habit to be suspicious of anyone (and everything). He was so overprotective sometimes that it was a bit stifling. It hit her then that hiding her 'job' from him would be close to impossible. "She is the one I told you about," Karin said, after thinking her decision over for a short moment. If he found out and Karin hadn't told him....things would get.... "The one who-"</p>
<p>Before Karin could finish that statement, before she could say those few all explaining words, there was a hand on her shoulder. Fingers dug into her shoulder and Karin felt her center of balance shift and pulled and before she knew it she had stumbled back into the room she shared with her sister and now someone else and the door was closed loudly behind her. "What the hell?"</p>
<p>"Who is that?" Again, Karin wondered at Rukia. Her voice was almost breathless, shaky in any case and her pale, sweaty face was leaned against the back of the door, eyes closed. As if she needed the door to keep her upright.</p>
<p>From the side, Karin watched her and in the pit of her stomach something turned. (Defensively.) "My brother," she said shorty, crossing her arms. "Weren't you listening?"</p>
<p>Rukia shook her head, a look Karin was very familiar with entering her eyes once she finally managed to open them. "That is not possible. That kind of reiatsu....” even before the words were spoken, Karin knew she wouldn't like them. They still came as a surprise. “He <em>can't</em> be human."</p>
<p>Karin's eyes hardened. Uncompromisingly, not even bothering to think about the sheer absurdity of claim beyond that it was <em>against her brother.</em> She was so angry, she trouble seeing straight. "Yes he is," she snapped venomously, fists clenching and only not yet violent because this was beyond violence. Violence would not do her argument for her. Violence had no effect on someone who fought bone crushing monsters for a living. Violence was<em> not enough</em>. "My brother, elder by four years,” spat Karin. People could argue that Karin had very little patience. That was true, but she still had some. People could say she had very little tolerance. For some things, that was also true. If there was one point where she had nothing of either, then that was with her family. Kaa-san's death had scared them all. Everyone who crossed her there was...murder wasn't as far away from her thoughts as it should be. That she owed Rukia her sister's life was the only reason what she had said had not already thrown her out the window. She might do so still. Family was off limits. “Either say what is your problem or leave. And don't come back."</p>
<p>Rukia's wide eyes widened a bit more, but she only pressed her lips together, face paperwhite. "I don't have a problem," she said carefully, choosing her words and trying not to dig her hole any deeper; a weak effort at best with how she kept glancing in the direction of Ichigo's room. Where he very obviously was. She swallowed, paused, moved away from the door, straightened her spine, gathering her bearings. It took a startling short amount of time, before an ice-faced, polite, and very mechanical Kuchiki Rukia invaded the privacy of Karin's room. "It's just....you are a very reiryoku sensitive human. There is no way you can't not feel...your brother's reiatsu."</p>
<p>Karin leveled her best glare and tapped her foot against the floor, jaw clenched. "If you mean by reiatsu his presence, then of course I feel it.” She clarified. “Hard not to. I don't see your point."</p>
<p>Rukia looked at her. It was a look that was guarded, wary, but most of all searching. As if wondering if she could, should speak any more at all.</p>
<p>"When I came here," she began eventually, slowly. "Ever since I first arrived, something in this town has been blocking my senses. I was, still am, unable to sense anything even standing right in front of it,” she admitted, the evenness in her voice melting into frustration. “You should be like a blinding light to me and I should be able to find your location pinpoint even miles away. Right now I couldn't even tell if you were standing right in front of me were it not for my eyes. It was the same with my Soul Phone. It couldn't do any sensing either. And I have no doubt,” added Rukia carefully reluctant, “your brother is the source."</p>
<p>This was said with such seriousness, her gaze, finally able to meet Karin's again, imploring as if that was all that needed to be said for Karin to understand the gravity of the situation. To see what was <em>wrong with her brother</em>. Karin just waited for more. Flatly.</p>
<p> It took a while, but when Rukia finally sensed she had not convinced, she continued, growing more confident as it looked like Karin was not calling off all deals after all, but also more confused. "That is <em>not</em> normal.” It apparently was so absurd that Rukia had trouble believing it herself, despite trying to convince Karin at the same time. “The kind of reiatsu your brother has...it is not the kind that should exist in the world of the living. It is dangerous. Shouldn't happen. And even if it did, Soul Society should know about it." Rukia waved a hand sinking into thoughts, again looking like words were actually not needed to see......whatever Rukia saw.</p>
<p>It made Karin relax, if only a bit. Maybe she had been a bit fast to judge. Ichigo's....reiatsu was giving Rukia a shock. Maybe she didn't mean what she had said and it was only her denial speaking. (Something with which Karin was very familiar.) So Karin hoped.</p>
<p>And to find out? Ask more questions. "So? You have your standards and Ichi-nii falls out of them. That is not our problem." And really, it wasn't. All fault lay with Soul Society. For their standards, for their ignorance, and for a dozen things more.</p>
<p>Rukia, having started pacing in the very little room that was available for it, fixed Karin with a <em>look</em>. One that very clearly doubted Karin's intelligence. (The pre-teen in question bristled on reflex; it wasn't her fault she didn't know about the afterlife.) "You don't understand. With your brother's spiritual energy, his surroundings will not remain unaffected. Probably have already been affected. It is dangerous." One of Rukia's delicate eyebrows twitched just thinking about it. She was visibly getting irritated.</p>
<p>"Not that it matters,” Karin stated, reminding, “but dangerous how?" The suspicious edge in her voice was her right. </p>
<p>"Hollows.” Rukia replied immediately, hardly even thinking about it. “Right now your brother has more spiritual energy than the rest of the town together, you possibly excluded. His presence is spread over the entire town, so far that it can even obscure a shinigami's senses.” Again, as if that was all explanation one would need. But Rukia had caught on to the fact that her listener didn't have the same knowledge and she elaborated, trying to make her point. “If he were a shinigami, which he isn't, he'd carry limiters for his and the town's safety. If he left his body at times or regularly gets emptied of his energy, which while theoretically possible for humans with the aid of a shinigami is extremely unhealthy for the soul. In other words, if the reiatsu in the air were nothing but leftover residue, then it wouldn't be as bad. But it isn't, so it is that <em>bad</em>. There is <em>nothing </em>that is more attracting to Hollows.” Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she seemed to almost have forgotten about her listener. With a glance in Karin's direction she sighed. “Beyond that, there exists a danger to his soul. Humans are not made to handle that much power. " Everything else the shinigami had said today was mindless mumbling, in light of this. "It is a wonder he has not died already. Be it from Hollows, his own spiritual pressure, exhaustion of spiritual energy." Rukia shook her head, at a loss for words.</p>
<p>Karin on the other hand wasn't. So yeah, what Rukia said sounded bad, but Karin was only just introduced to a world of spiritual energies, soul eating monsters and the very real existence of the afterlife. Only knowing and understanding the basics, she failed to see the true point.  Instead, with her emotional quota used up for the day and fear being the last on her mind after having successfully wrought down her temper, she was running her thoughts to the (to her) clear point of the matter. "...in other words, my brother is in danger of getting eaten by Hollows. And he poses a bit of a health risk to himself." If one took the supernatural factor out of the last statement, then, really, it wasn't even a surprise. More like the norm concerning Ichigo. "I take care of Hollows coming after him -assuming you have ways to track them,” she gave Rukia a pointed look, “and you deal with my brother and his...reiatsu? That isn't such a problem then."</p>
<p>And to Karin, that was that. Especially when the dead security officer only opened and closed her mouth fruitlessly a few times before nodding.</p>
<p>Karin would protect her brother from the few Hollows that might or might not appear, Rukia would work on a long time solution that would keep her brother save even once Karin lost Rukia's powers and said shinigami returned to Soul Society. Not, though, that Karin was actually expecting to do much saving. After all there had as far as she knew (and that she thought was quite a lot, all things considered) there had never been a Hollow anywhere near her or her family. Ichigo had never come home looking like he had just run from, beaten up, or encountered a monster thrice his size. Nor had he ever even given any indicator that he had seen, or knew about shinigami. (Though there had been that time when he had disappeared for a months or so.) It stood to reason that the one Hollow that had appeared yesterday would be the first and the last she's see in a long time.</p>
<p>That's what she'd thought. That was what was supposed to be.</p>
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<p>It was the next afternoon, Monday, when Rukia stood in front of Urahara Kisuke's run down shop. She pressed her lips together, considering, as she struggled to keep the flimsy human uniform in place. (If her brother ever saw her wearing a thing this degrading, he might place her on house arrest and etiquette-reschooling for the next decade. And it would <em>only</em> be a decade because it would be part of Rukia's undercover work.) Urahara Kisuke was a man she did not know much about. Back when she had gone to Shin'o Academy he had been mentioned in one or two history lessons, but Rukia had forgotten in what context he had appeared. Other than a vague memory that it had been something negative. That one would land in the over-cramped textbooks of the afterlife for perverseness, laziness and a strange fashion sense was unlikely, however.</p>
<p>To Rukia's eyes, the man was eccentric at best and eccentric at worst. An impression that was only supported by his odd choice of life to set up house in the material world. But the noble was not naive enough to think he was doing so just because he felt like it and it never hurt to be on guard. Especially since she depended on him to keep her crime a secret and support her with necessities.</p>
<p> (She didn't even bother to mention how his presence had not been included in her briefing; the thing had been utterly useless.)</p>
<p>The wooden door was slid open with a resounding smack, before she could even get her hand on it and something collided with her middle with too much momentum; Rukia found herself staring up at the sky, something red and loud (<em>Renji</em>- she brutally stomped on the thought) scrambling around at the edge of her vision.</p>
<p>“Jinta-kun,” a deep voice said, a note of warning in it. “Look at what you have done.”</p>
<p>“It wasn't my fault, Tessai-san! She was standing in the way. And I was just returning to work-Nooo!”</p>
<p>Picking herself of the ground, Rukia watched as the red-haired child was carried of by the shop owner's gigantic assistant, struggling and screaming his innocence in terror. Only after a courteous bow to her, of course, and advising her on where to find Urahara.</p>
<p>True to word, the blond man was sitting just inside the shop, looking for all his life bored to tears, a fan next to him, just waiting to be picked up, which he promptly did once he caught sight of Rukia entering.</p>
<p>"Ah, Kuchiki-san. Welcome,” he rose to his feet, hiding his eyes under the rim of his hat, smiling. “What can I do for you?" Playing with the fan in had, snapping it open and close; an annoying habit the might just have adopted to be just that.</p>
<p>"I want my Soul Phone back. You are done with it, I assume?" Rukia was pretty sure he was the type of man to be annoying just because he liked it. This reasoning had its basis in him not warning her about Kurosaki Ichigo. He had probably had had a good laugh, imagining Rukia's reaction. Just the thought made her grit her teeth. Her partner's brother was one shock she could have done without. It wasn't even so much his abnormal reiyoku, much more was it his even more abnormal similarity to....Kaien-dono.</p>
<p>Urahara Kisuke, ignorant to her dark thoughts, happily snapped his fan. "Of course."</p>
<p>Rukia leveled a stare she had learned from her brother at him. "Am I also right in assuming the only thing you did was to shield it against Kurosaki Ichigo's reiatsu signature?"</p>
<p>Falsely hiding it behind the fan, Urahara smiled as he produced the device out of his sleeves. "You are most definitely correct, Kuchiki-san. Standard procedure for sensitive equipment in my humble store."</p>
<p>The same then as what Rukia was currently doing. The same Kurosaki Karin was doing subconsciously. Blocking out the human's reiatsu from her senses and she could Sense again. Unconventional, difficult and needing practice, but definitely possible. However it brought up the next point.  "Why have you never done anything about him? Nevermind the effects on his person, if it is a complication for you, I suspect you would do something about it. And why haven't you informed Soul Society."</p>
<p>"Ah...,” sighed Urahara, apparently having expected this. “Well. I have."</p>
<p>Silence followed in which Rukia turned a demanding stare at the man, but only got ignored in return. The man had the gall to hum and let his eyes drift elsewhere as if he was simply waiting for Rukia to leave.</p>
<p>"Nevermind then,” she concluded coolly. “I'll just do it myself." She saw herself out and slammed the door shut behind her (winching at how Nii-sama would react to her lack of composure).</p>
<p>Her general irritation at this assignment rose another notch and mentally she viciously added another point to her already long list of complains. The department in charge of managing the World of the Living was so horribly at its job, it might not exist at all.</p>
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<p>"What are we doing here,” asked Rukia's temporary partner, sounding bored.</p>
<p>"Waiting."</p>
<p>"For what?"</p>
<p>Rukia sighed. "A Hollow."</p>
<p>"Wha....”, the child trailed off, stifling a yawn half way through and stretching her arms over her head. “There is no way they'll just appear just like this. I told you, before the one....yesterday I have never seen one in my life. No way they'll just come if we sit and wait."</p>
<p>Yes, that. That was one more thing that unbalanced Rukia about this town. A child of Karin's age, intellect and gifts, not even taking her siblings into account and neither had ever seen a shinigami (which could possibly be explained away thanks to Memory Modifiers) or a Hollow and there were no traces of any recent Hollow battles in the town. There was just no way Hollows didn't love this place. There was certainly enough reiastu in the air. There was only one possible solution to Rukia."You have simply not looked in the right places. Hollows are operating on instinct. If there is food, they will come fast."</p>
<p>"Food?" Karin gave her a faithless (result of that conflict over her brother. Rukia admitted to having taken the wrong approach there.) look that clearly debated if she wanted to know more. "...is that why we are watching that boy?"</p>
<p>Rukia did not miss how the girl that had absorbed all her powers hinted strongly that the answer better be no. "Yes.”</p>
<p>Ever since her name had been Kuchiki, shinigami no matter what rank had always been polite to her, always greeted her with great respect. There had always been a distance that only Kaien-dono had ever bridged. Being rude to her was the last thing on anyone's mind. Violence when faced with her even less. No one even disagreed with her.</p>
<p>By now, after the first meeting where Rukia had gotten a fist to the stomach for ignoring her and yesterday the verbally threatening conflict, she really should have known better than to expect that same treatment from Kurosaki Karin. A kick in the side was thus definitely not what Rukia was used to. (In the depth of her mind she did allow herself to admit how refreshing it was.)</p>
<p>The smaller, <em>younger,</em> black haired girl glared down at her from the railing she was balancing on (and on which Rukia had been sitting till just now), a cross expression on her face. "You want to use that kid as bait! No way! What are you? A devil? I can't believe you." (An expression that was very much similar to the orange haired older sibling. Kaien-dono. Rukia swallowed the ache in her chest down before it appeared.)</p>
<p>Sighing, Rukia dusted herself off. There were many things she regretted about her current situation. Humans were humans. They were neither supposed to know about shinigami, nor were their minds capable of understanding the ways of the shinigami. This, right now, was one such effect. However Rukia believed to be fully capable of working with Kuraoski Karin despite it. "Nothing will happen to him. That is why you are here." She fixed Karin with a look, satisfied when the temperamental girl was willing to listen before resulting to further violence."Or are you telling me you cannot protect him?"</p>
<p>Karin's jaw dropped, her expression speaking of utter incomprehension and disbelief.</p>
<p>Rukia continued arguing her point (even though in her opinion it didn't need much arguing in the first place) when she saw the first sparks of anger in Karin's eyes. "If you cannot, then that will be a problem, of course, but were you not very eager to try out your zanpakuto?" Resisting the urge to grin, Rukia saw how that comment gave Karin a pause. Yes, the shingami regretted having to give her powers to a girl that was only twelve years of life and desiring a normal life on top of it, but-</p>
<p>"Yes!" Exclaimed Karin.</p>
<p>-but Rukia was incredibly relived Karin was not averse to violence (at all) and that the target for the transfer was extraordinary enough to produce a soul slayer sword almost as tall as herself. (And didn't that just open a whole new can of worms about things that didn't make sense? Those proportions were unheard of.)</p>
<p>"But that doesn't mean we can just go and use a little kid as bait! It's wrong!" She gestured animatedly at the spirit of a young boy, not that much younger than Karin.</p>
<p>Rukia's brown furrowed. "How is it wrong? If you preform a konso on him before or after you slay your second Hollow-"</p>
<p>"-first-"</p>
<p>"-differs only in the experience you gain from it.....what do you mean by first? Did you not kill the one attacking you yesterday?" Rukia had been unconscious from the moment Karin took her power till the moment she woke up in Urahara's shop. Had it been Urahara who killed the Hollow?</p>
<p>Karin shifted uncomfortably, skipping down from the metal rods and landing softly on the ground."...I did. But I don't remember it well. Or the rest of yesterday. So I'd rather count this as the first-"</p>
<p>Karin froze and at the same time Rukia's cell changed from warning lights to full alarm. A moment after that Rukia finally sensed the malicious reiatsu as well, still needing to shift through her partner's brother's presence. Still, Rukia was good at her job so getting within reach of one (now) semi-human girl to rid her of her body before she went to save the soul of the boy without actually being in any form to do so. (Because, as Rukia was suddenly reminded, she was just that type of human, that type of reckless.)</p>
<p>Karin stumbled out of her body, her eye catching Rukia's even as she did so, before she caught herself again remarkably fast. Rukia drew the soul to the side, keeping him well out of reach of the fight, stomping down and dismissing her feelings as she <em>stood by</em> with practiced ease. Instead she focused on analyzing how Karin fought, how she moved (if Rukia would need to interfere). </p>
<p>Wasting not time at all, Karin threw herself at the Hollow. There was no hesitation in her movement, no visible fear, her slashes were aggressive and fast. If was as if Karin could not sense the predatory spirit crushing down them, did not realize what the snow white teeth behind the bone white mask could do. Karin was indifferent to the black reiatsu shadowing glowing eyes.</p>
<p>The instinctive fear Hollows induced, in one way or another, in all its effects, did not touch Karin.</p>
<p>On the other hand she had many unnecessary steps.</p>
<p>Only twelve (in <em>human</em> years), a human, a protected little sister. She was <em>good.</em> </p>
<p>Gifted with reiatsu, talented enough with a sword. A quick mind, fast adaption to a spiritual body. (For a human.)</p>
<p>Unbidden, Rukia smiled fleetingly. This was not going to be as horrible as it had looked to be after all.</p>
<p>The fight didn't take long and by the end of it, Karin had killed her first -if she wanted to look at it like that- Hollow, gaining a shallow scratch on her shoulder in return.  Rukia watched Karin watch the body of the Hollow disperse. Then Karin came stomping over, looking irritated, angry and very dangerous with the blood sticking to her. Glowering shortly at Rukia, she gave the two heads shorter boy a not at all reassuring smile, pushed the hilt of her blood coated sword to his forehead (Rukia watched with a detached sense of wonderment she was starting to adapt to everything strange in this town how the soul burial was preformed perfectly at the first try), before rounding on Rukia, her eyes spitting fire.</p>
<p>On reflex, Rukia took a step back.</p>
<p>“Okay. Listen. Ground rule.” The girl bit out, hefting her sword over her shoulder in a way that might have been subconscious but was still very threatening. “<em>Never ever again</em> are we going to use a <em>child</em> as <em>bait. </em>Got that?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You, as a shrine miko, wish to teach me how to do something about the ghost problem around the house and my attracting of them?"</p>
<p>Rukia set her jaw in challenge at the skeptically raised eyebrow (along with a scowl) directed at her. "Yes. Is there quite something about it?" She was sitting formally, as she had learned from her family, with legs folded under her. But she had also learned from them that the corresponding conversationalist was supposed to mirror her approach and not vaguely talk to her over his shoulder while sitting at his desk.</p>
<p>Trying not to take the rudeness personally and reminding herself that she was the one coming here with a purpose, that she needed him to cooperate, Rukia bit her tongue.</p>
<p>"No," returned the brother of her partner flatly, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes before turning his attention fully back to his desk. “Do go ahead. I'm listening." Clearly, he felt like he was only humoring her. Hoping she'd go away faster.</p>
<p>Rukia once again reminded herself why she was doing this. Promise to Karin. Her duty to protect humans. (Can't let Kaien-dono lookalike die.) Making her job easier. She decided to take another approach, seeing that her kind offer of help was not received with much appreciation. “Do you not want to get rid of the ghosts following you?” Point out what he had to gain from following Rukia's instructions. And the sister. “Karin was very willing." Which was technically a lie; sure Karin wanted to get rid of the souls and she did so by performing konso, but Rukia has not even broached the subject of reiatsu control with her.</p>
<p>Rukia heard the click of his pencil as it was put down and the teenager turned around in his chair. Halfway in any case. That was more attention than Rukia had had so far from him since she entered his room. Kurosaki Ichigo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It is not that I don't want them to go, but I have already tried everything. I don't believe a solution would just walk into our house."</p>
<p>That was good then. He was interested. And any kinds of human exorcists and priests had nothing on her."No need to worry then. My way will work."</p>
<p>The look he shot her at that was even more skeptical than the one she gotten when she had first claimed to be a miko (Rukia remembered with a sudden start that Karin had said something about her brother not being as gullible as the rest of the family). This time there was also a bit of condescendingly amusement with a faint smirk and mocking light in his eyes. (It felt a bit like a wake up slap in the face, because no matter how familiar the face was, it was not the same person.)</p>
<p>Duty, just do your duty. Just do your job. Don't blow up at him. Here and now. She swallowed once before starting with an even but cold voice on the beginners practices of reiatsu control and how that would make him less interesting for souls. She was only halfway through when she was interrupted. Flatly.</p>
<p>"Not possible.”</p>
<p>"What?" Being interrupted startled her almost as much as the bored dismissal she was faced with.</p>
<p>Kurosaki Ichigo had the gall to roll his eyes at her. As if <em>she</em> were the one who was being absurd."I already know that way. It doesn't work,” he said. “Even more dangerous than letting my reaistu leak out."</p>
<p>"....What!” The way he spoke.....He had tried this? He had been <em>taught</em> this? <em>Shinigami</em> practice? “Who taught you?" She demanded, rising to her feet. Shinigami were not supposed to teach anything to humans. What Rukia was doing....it broke so many laws. And while she was sure exceptions could be made for living beings like the one sitting in front of her, that needed authorization. And Rukia would have been informed of his existence in the <em>very least.</em> That she hadn't been, implied that it had not been reported to Soul Society. Might not even necessarily have been a shinigami. What if humans there was a human with knowledge about-</p>
<p>Unaware of the dire direction Rukia's thoughts were taking, the human unconcernedly just rolled his eyes again."A blond with a stupid grin."</p>
<p>That brought her thoughts to a stop. Urahara Kisuke. Silence. Kurosaki watched her with guarded eyes as she remembered her conversation with the infuriating shop keeper. Hadn't he said he had done something about this boy? She cast her mind back. No, he hadn't actually said anything more than admitting to knowing about him. He had never said if -or what- he had done. Maybe he had only tried. Maybe he hadn’t even done that and only reported him to Soul Society. Or maybe he hadn't even done that.</p>
<p>Urahara Kisuke had actually said nothing at all that would tell Rukia anything.</p>
<p>That man!</p>
<p>(In the back of her mind, the part that was not so much occupied with rules and regulations, she saw there might be a reason an irregular like Kurosaki Ichigo was better of not known to Soul Society.)</p>
<p>Rukia sat back down.</p>
<p>Kurosaki Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her.</p>
<p>“If I may ask, why does reiatsu suppression not work for you?”</p>
<p>Rukia tried very hard not to stare at the suspicious look the human gave her. A bit of suspicion, wariness, she would have expected, but not the kind of full distrust. Again, she swallowed anxiously, only relaxing when he finished piercing her.</p>
<p> For the first time facing her fully, grumbling and annoyed, he explained. "Let me ask you this,” he began, sounding as if this was just a waste of his time and Rukia was a little child wanting to know matters to complicated for her. “You have a balloon. This balloon has a little hole. This hole doesn't get bigger, but air keeps escaping through it. And you keep pumping air into it. You don't stop. And air keeps escaping through the hole. Just enough so that there can be more pumped inside. Now what would happen if the hole was closed? Air can't escape. And air keeps getting pumped in. What would happen to the balloon?"</p>
<p>Rukia, somewhere along the explanation, had dropped her jaw and was now gaping at him. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had a very clear picture of what he was talking about and she understood that too, but her head moved in denial, unable to truly comprehend what he was telling her.</p>
<p>"It would explode." Ichigo finished, oddly blank considering it was his life they were talking about. "I'd rather not do that."</p>
<p>“...Oh.”</p>
<p>He gave her a wry look, morbidly amused. “Yeah. That was my first thought, too.”</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
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<p>.</p>
<p>From: don't-care</p>
<p>To: whatever</p>
<p>Subject: None</p>
<p>Stuck with Shinigami house guest. For Karin.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Rukia had practically known that from the moment she had had to transfer her powers that her mission got shot to hell. But the more time she spend here, in the world of the Living, the more her assessment was off. Shot to hell just did no longer cover it. Rukia by now no longer even knew where to start. She had half a mind to even scrap her list of complains, because even that was simply no longer covering it.</p>
<p>After having to adjust her way of working to Karin's sense of right and wrong a couple of days ago, the latest incident was Karin's brother.</p>
<p>(And wasn't he just a subject Rukia would like to forget.)</p>
<p>His similarities to Kaien-dono were not limited to appearance only (Karin, too, and Rukia finally knew what had been nagging at her since she had met the girl), though he was much fiercer and, well, broodier than....(There were traits they both, Karin and Ichigo, shared with each other and with Kaien-dono. Subtly and hardly there, but in her one week, since she had left Soul Society, she had been slapped in the face by just <em>things </em>five times.)</p>
<p>Now there was that matter with his reiatsu that just threw Rukia's previous definition of abnormal down the drain. She was no member of the Twelfth Division, but even Rukia knew that humans did not have...reiatsu like Kurosaki Ichigo. Neither the sheer amount, nor the quality of it, and especially not the feel of it.</p>
<p>Then there was the fact (that Rukia had only noticed after their conversation when she had to yet again clarify a word for Karin) that he was very familiar with Rukia's terminology. In other words he was very familiar with shimigami knowledge. A familiarity he had had no right to have even if Urahara had instructed and given up on teaching him control.</p>
<p>(At least but not last Rukia had not forgotten or dismissed the appearance of a Hollow signal exactly at the Kurosaki clinic and the subsequent faster disappearance than Rukia could think of a way to tell Karin about it.)</p>
<p>Kurosaki Ichigo made her already no-sense assignment still two times worse.</p>
<p>He should, for lack of better term, not <em>exist.</em></p>
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<p>From: whatever</p>
<p>To: don't-care</p>
<p>Subject: none</p>
<p>You know what they say. Ignorance is bliss. That said, over here we are taking bets on how long you are gonna last.</p>
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<p>"So, Rukia, I have been wondering. You said my brother is in danger from Hollows. Then how come you didn't want to use him as bait. And don't you dare start,” Karin warned. They were sitting in her room. Yuzu was down, making dinner and Karin was once again using the time to quiz the dead girl on anything that sprung into her mind.</p>
<p>Rukia in turn fixed her with a look. Dry, reserved, but still somehow blindsided by Karin's brother. She sniffed in disdain. (Something that made Karin wonder; it wasn't like Rukia was arrogant. But she seemed to be trying to pretend she was.) "He is leaking so much reiatsu, pinpointing his location is not an easy feat. Other targets seem to be easier,” Rukia explained after a moment of thought. “While there of course still is a chance of him getting attacked, compared to souls it is rather low. In a way his earthly shell”- which Karin took to mean 'flesh and blood body'- “serves as a misdirection and as such as protection. Among...,” she hesitated, her brows knitting together. Her eyes fluttered in the vague direction of Ichigo. “....other things. If there is-"</p>
<p>Rukia snapped her mouth shut, hand already flying to her cell (put on standby on the desk while the two of them did homework), and Karin shot from her seat so fast the chair toppled to the ground. In the past week she had been hunting Hollows with a frequency she hadn't thought possible. Never mind never seeing a Hollow again; Karin was lucky when one day passed by without Rukia's cell going off.</p>
<p>The paleness of Rukia's face stoped her in her tracks and even before Rukia began to talk, a cold hand of certainty made Karin's stomach drop through her feet. "Here-"</p>
<p>A dull thud spurred Karin from her spot even before a there was a <em>pulse</em> in Ichi-nii's reiatsu. She was hurling through the corridor, her feet slipping on the floor, in no time. Rukia was yelling something after her, but Karin didn't listen and threw the door to her brother's room open, heart in her throat.</p>
<p>Karin honestly didn't know what she had planned to do, what she had expected when she had stormed into her brother room, but him closing the window as if nothing was wrong, jumping at the noise Karin made, looking at first Karin wide eyed and then at Rukia when she came without his usual scowl and expression uncharacteristically open, was definitely <em>not</em> it.</p>
<p>“Uh,” he said, glancing between them and carrying an uncomfortable confusion on his face that Karin had never seen before. It took the last of Karin's momentum from her, bringing her up short and making her stare. “Karin....”</p>
<p>“Uh,”Ichigo said again, bridging the awkward pause of staring at each other. “Do you want something?”</p>
<p>Krain shook her head, trying to clear it. “Yeah. Did you-”</p>
<p>Before the younger sibling could get another word out, Rukia <em>yanked</em> on her arm and she was pulled from her brother's sight and room, not missing the narrowed eyes the elder girl directed at Ichigo, who just <em>clueless</em> <em>blinked</em> in return. But then they were gone, and Rukia dragged her along, her stare now focused on her cell and Karin, on the verge of protesting, abruptly remembered the Hollow.</p>
<p>Business as she preferred to be, Rukia shoved Karin hurriedly out of her body (which dropped to the floor and was promptly forgotten), opened the window and without another word the hunt was beginning when both girls left the house. </p>
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<p>“You are sure it is this way?”</p>
<p>“Yes. Not much further.”</p>
<p>Jumping over roofs at night certainly was not what Karin had ever dreamed of doing. Her shihakusho flattered in the night and were it a bit colder Karin would be freezing by now.  It still kind of stumped her; the lightness of her feet, the agility of her body, the strength of her muscles. That said, she liked it. Rukia, 'wearing' a 'gigai' wasn't quite as fast as she was, but still could only pass as a human with difficulty.</p>
<p>Karin focused in the direction they were heading. “I can feel it now, I think.” Rukia had called this ability (creatively) Sensing and had said that Karin was good at it. Karin didn't feel particularly good at it. Half doubting her mind, she was never sure if the...wildness, the hint of darkness was not only her imagination. As they got closer, yes, then the predatory, bone chilling air could not be mistaken for much else, but from far away it was, no matter what Rukia claimed, not exactly noteworthy.</p>
<p>Suddenly the aura -reiatsu- Karin had used as a landmark disappeared. Rukia muttered a curse under her breath and they both came to slow stop on a steep roof. “It disappeared,” Karin breathed. “Where did it go?”</p>
<p>Rukia flipped open her phone. Hollows had the ability to appear and disappear from one place to another; only Rukia's Soul Phone was able to keep track when they jumped place like that. “This is,” muttered Rukia, glancing up. Her eyes seemed to be glowing in the moon light. “It's gone. Defeated.”</p>
<p>“What?” Karin looked in the original direction. “I thought....Aren't I doing this because no one else can?”</p>
<p>Rukia gave her a sharp look. Then she sighed, grimacing faintly. “Yes.” She said. “But something is odd in this town. You and your brother are only part of it. Lets go. Maybe we can still find some information. Some clue.” With that Rukia overtook her and led the way. Her entire posture screamed her frustration.</p>
<p>Karin sighed, but followed. Personally she didn't see any problem, but Rukia was the one who had a better grasp on what was supernaturally right and what wasn't. It wasn't like Karin cared if Karakura was a bit odd; it had been perfectly fine so far, why would it change now?</p>
<p>So she jumped after Rukia and they both once again came to a stop on a house a few blocks later. “Here?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Rukia pointed a delicate finger at an apartment complex. It was the back side, Karin realized and the a few stories up, there was a hole in the wall, giving a great view into into one apartment. “It is over. With no victims, it seems.”</p>
<p>Karin strained her eyes and her senses. There were two humans there. In the very room that had been destroyed. In the darkness they were difficult to recognize, but there was still enough light from street lamps, the moon and other lights to highlight surprisingly bright hair as the person leaned (recklessly, stupidly) out the destroyed wall. The voice carried as well, cheerful as it was even as the young woman bemoaned how it will take her days to glue the wall back together and how Tatsuki-chan had chosen a bad moment to fall asleep.</p>
<p>“Are we going to ask her what happened?” Karin asked, familiarity nagging at the back of her mind.</p>
<p>Rukia looked like she wanted to do just that, but something was holding her back. In the end she bit her lip and her eyes gained a determined edge. Without a verbal reply, Rukia slipped a couple of stories down, landing softly on her feet and went around to the front entrance. Karin took that to mean yes.</p>
<p>Karin trailed after Rukia, who found the way to the right front door with startling surety. Absently, as Rukia pressed the door button, Karin wondered if that was some other weird power thing that dead people seemed to have and if she could learn it.</p>
<p>Then the door was thrown open with a whoosh and so much energy that it blew Karin's bangs in her face. On the other side stood a young woman, <em>Ichi-nii's age</em>, bubbly smile, orange hair and very developed body. “Good evening,” she chirped happily, as if her front door wasn't pretty much the only thing still standing in her home. “Who are you?”</p>
<p>Inue Orihime.</p>
<p>“My name is Kuchiki Rukia,” Rukia introduced herself, smiling cheerily (creepily; didn't fit her face at all) and slipping on her horrid acting skills. “Terribly sorry to bother you so late at night, but I thought I might have heard a some very loud noise-” dead lie-”, which could have been my imagination of course and was wondering if something odd might have happened to you. Like did something attack you? Something you couldn't see?”</p>
<p>“Oh! That's nice of you. But -”</p>
<p>Karin tilted her head to the side blocking out the exchange. That, right there, was utterly weird. Orihime talked to Rukia as if there was nothing at all wrong with Rukia's appearance (no shoes, no jacket, looking like she just jumped out of a window), her timing (funny that Rukia was faster than police or even the neighbors), her questions (who in their right mind would answer late night visitor about something that just happened unexplained a couple of minutes or so before), or the situation in general (destroyed apartment; middle school student at the door, best friend unconscious further in as Karin checked).</p>
<p>Her face flattened when despite her best efforts of not listening and having walked just past Orihime into the wreckage (since she was a shinigami and as such invisible), the exchange still reached her ears. </p>
<p>“....and then my little fairies came....”</p>
<p>“....terrible.....luck.....”</p>
<p>“....tsuki-chan is just.....”</p>
<p>Karin, with her meager knowledge of the human anatomy, check the pulse of her brother's childhood friend, an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. (Arisawa Tatsuki did not have a single scratch.) If what ever defeated the Hollow hadn't been there, then Tatsuki and Orihime, her brother's friends, people Karin herself knew, would be dead now. Not just that, but their souls would have been eaten, their bones crushed to dust.</p>
<p>The nails of her finger dug painfully into her palms as she rose to her feet. Karin had <em>failed</em>.</p>
<p>She had been too slow, not there, not <em>good enough</em>.</p>
<p>Karin owed Rukia a debt, but that wasn't the main reason she was taking over he job. She had power now and she wanted to protect with it. Her brother was protective and whenever she needed something he was there, and even when faced with everyday life he worried about them. Karin wanted to be strong so that he wouldn't have to worry. She wanted to protect both Ichi-nii and Yuzu from this dangerous side of reality. She wanted neither of them worry about her. She wanted to protect them. She wanted to be useful. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to be relied on. She didn't want to be protected. She wanted to do her part. She wanted to help. She wanted to be of use to someone somewhere. Rukia had given her that chance.</p>
<p>And Karin had <em>failed.</em></p>
<p>It was only luck that made her failure unimportant.</p>
<p>Both thoughts sounded bitter in her head and for the first time since her life had been put on top, Karin wondered if....</p>
<p>….if she was good enough for this. If she could do this.</p>
<p>Clenching her fists a bit tighter, Karin stared at the moon shining mockingly down onto the destruction. Always out of reach.</p>
<p>“Karin-chan. You are still here? Your friend has already left.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” said Karin, “I'll be going then.”</p>
<p>She felt absurdly tired, her body was heavier that it had ever been since she had met Rukia and there was a numbness in her head that made thinking very difficult; she didn't even comprehend that Orihime had spoken to her when she should not be able to see Karin.</p>
<p>Outside, Rukia was leaning against against a street lamp, a hand at her chin absent in thought.</p>
<p>Karin venomously bit her lip and forced a nonchalant expression on her face. "Learned something helpful?"</p>
<p>Rukia glanced at her from the corner of her eye. "No. I don't know what to make of it at all."</p>
<p>The way back home was taken by conventional street and Karin folded her arms behind her head, more for reinforcing casualty in her own mind than anything else. "Of what exactly?"</p>
<p>"Of everything that girl said. I cannot even decide if she had had her memory erased or not. On the one hand she clearly remembers being attacked. She even remembers a monster whose description is too close to a Hollow for coincidence. But on the other hand there is no way of slaying a Hollow that would involve 'guardian faeries' and I don't see how that could connect to her hairpins. Or how they could talk. And I find it difficult to believe that she has healed her fiend with her magic words," Rukia mused.</p>
<p>Despite herself, Karin snorted. She did not know Orihime Inoue well or at all beyond her name and appearance, but the tales of her....'active imagination' were known to everyone who had just been in her presence once or twice. "Don't take everything she said seriously. To me it sounds like she got her memory erased and filled the space up with her own fantasy. From what I know of her, what she told you was still tame."</p>
<p>Rukia whipped her head around. "You know her?"</p>
<p>Karin shrugged. "She is a friend of my brother's."</p>
<p>"Your brother," repeated Rukia so utterly flat, Karin did a double take.</p>
<p>She also narrowed her eyes in warning. Saying anything against Karin's family <em>again</em> was just stupid; Rukia was not stupid. Better not become stupid. "Got a problem?"</p>
<p>For a second -just a short second- something soft and vulnerable flashed over the other's expression, but then it was gone so fast Karin doubted she had seen right, replaced with careful thoughtfulness. "I believe I have mentioned your brother being extraordinary?"</p>
<p>"Yes." Karin set her jaw.</p>
<p>Rukia nodded, glancing at her fleetingly before her sight drifted off to somewhere else. "I am still determining the exact lines of his unusualness," she explained. "Did you know he is familiar with shinigami terms for one? I have an explanation for that and it in light of it that fact isn't all that troublesome, however it remains that you did not know about it, nor about the man standing behind it. It makes me wonder what else you do not know -or maybe it is more appropriate to say- what your brother has hidden. Any ideas I come up with do fit around his high amount of reiatsu, make use of it and explain at least in part the oddness of this town."</p>
<p>Karin felt like she had been dumped in an ice bath. "What do you mean?" Her voice sounded weak even to her.</p>
<p>Rukia put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. It was heavy. "I don't know yet," she said, giving Karin a small smile. "Which is why I would like your agreement to investigate."</p>
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<p>An orange haired teenager was pacing agitated in his room, shooting nervous glances at the door, a random part of the wall and switching with dark glares to towards the window. He muttered curses under his breath, gruesome revenge scenarios and denials.</p>
<p>"What is taking him so long?"</p>
<p>He shot a longing look at a small stuffed lion sitting comfortably on an overstuffed desk. Green-button eyes on black fur were glittering in the light as if watching him.</p>
<p>"....should know....rubbish...."</p>
<p>The teenager was sweating, a cold panicky version of how it should be as he once again glanced at the wall. "Goddamn it," he muttered, spinning on his heel once more. "What am I supposed to tell him? I don't wanna die yet....."</p>
<p>The dirty mind he liked to entertain was not even going active, too swamped by the disbelieve, panic, fear, denial and dread. Glowering at the closed window he, he didn't even know if he wanted the bastard to return fast or not at all. Because <em>what</em> was he supposed to tell him? But he didn't want to wait anymore either.</p>
<p>With a strangled sound at the back of his throat, his eyes drifted again to the stuffed animal he had sat so carefully up. If only....</p>
<p>Most unmanly, but long past caring, he yelped when there was a sudden knock from the widow.</p>
<p>As expected an exact mirror image of himself knelt in front of it, waiting to be let it. Dread really pooled in his stomach when he caught sight of the already irritated expression on the soul's face.</p>
<p>Mod Soul Kon swallowed anxiously, wiped his hands on the pajama Kurosaki Ichigo's body was wearing and leaned over the bed to slide the window open and let Kurosaki Ichigo inside.</p>
<p>"Lost it," Ichigo grumbled, glowering darkly and nothing and anything.</p>
<p>Now normally Kon would quip something about Ichigo's disgustingly nonexistent skill of Sensing, but instead other words, exactly those that had been circling his head for the past hour, left his lips. Before he could stop them and before Ichigo had even properly arrived. "Karin is a shinigami."</p>
<p>Ichigo, in the middle of moving through the window missed a step, actually <em>goddamn stumbled and landed face first on the ground.</em> Hysteric laughter bubbled up inside Kon, but he pushed down on it. Judging form the tilt of Ichigo's head as he slowly picked himself up and -Kon winched- the expression when he finally did look at the bringer of world changing news, any indication that this was just a joke or anything at all that Kon didn't think this to be exactly as terrible as Ichigo probably thought it was (the guy was so damn protective of his sisters, just looking at them wrong was akin to suicide) would result in bloody harm and damage to Kon's own stuffed body.</p>
<p>"<em>What?</em>"</p>
<p>Kon wished with all his heart he was still inside that old carton at Hat-'n-Clock's shop. Granted, he'd be bored to tears and only waiting to be disposed off and he could not look at cute girls either as a stuffed animal or while taking over Ichigo's body, but at least he'd wouldn't have to worry about half the town being blown up from right beside him. He continued before Ichigo could fly off the handle and crush any normal human (Yuzu and Isshin not included; another half shinigami child, an ex-shinigami in a gigai not that Ichigo knew) in a mile radius with his reiatsu. "She and her new friend -quite the looker really- came running in her just after you skipped out the window after that Hollow. Was still in the middle of closing it, really. And they kind of looked like they expected to see a bloodbath. Then they left and I followed because- "the young woman was a beauty and he hadn't been introduced yet, "-they were behaving strange and when I entered your sisters' room Karin's empty body was lying on the floor -don't worry, I put her to bed-, the window was open and the shinigami girl's gigai, empty or not, was nowhere and then I was really really intelligent and quickly looked outside I saw your sister wearing a shihakusho and jumping from roof to roof and the shingami girl still in gigai following her," he finished, sucking in a breath he hadn't allowed himself to take while speaking.</p>
<p>Ichigo just stared at him. And not the wide-eyed-but-still-scowling version, but honest to god wide eyed.</p>
<p>Kon was nearing a mental break down, the anxiety of waiting and apprehension of Ichigo's reaction and relief at getting over with it catching up with him.</p>
<p>"<em>What?</em>" Ichigo rose to his feet, looking thoroughly irritated. "What are you taking about, Kon? Did you try alcohol again? I told you not to."</p>
<p>Denial. Of course. Kon wanted to cry. Why was<em> he</em> the one to break arguably the worst news to the temper-challenged, violently inclined soldier? Weren't there, like, a dozen people better suited for it? Preferably with violence. Otherwise it wouldn't get into his thick skull.</p>
<p>Just short of seeing it for himself nothing could convince him of his sister fighting monsters and knowing about monsters right under his nose for at least a week now.</p>
<p>....just short of seeing it himself....?</p>
<p>A figurative lightbulb went on in Kon's mind. "They aren't back yet," he told Ichigo. "Go to your sisters' room. You can see Karin's empty body for yourself. And then you can wait till they come back. And talk, if you want. And explain about yourself too. And forbid her from hunting Hollows. Or anything. Just go." Kon gestured at the door. "Take a look for yourself."</p>
<p>It wasn't that easy, of course. It took a lot more convincing on Kon's part (a shout match where half way through he had to assure Yuzu he was only practicing for a school play, a few low blows, a bet, promise of terrible punishment if Kon was wrong about the Karin-empty-in-bed part which didn't even touch the Karin-is-a-shingami part) before Ichigo was eventually willing to just <em>check</em>. If Kon hadn't already known Ichigo's attitude towards his sisters, that he hadn't even been willing to entertain the notion of it and dismiss the very thought on the spot certainly would have told even him all one needed to know.</p>
<p>But convince him, Kon did and the two went through the corridor, opened the door without knocking and Kon pulled back the covers hiding Kurosaki Karin's empty shell from sight. (He really had to stomp down on the smugness wanting to appear on his face, but what Ichigo in his decidedly unstable mental state would do to him was just not worth it.)</p>
<p>Kurosaki Ichigo paled, with <em>shaking</em> fingers checked his sister's pulse, put a hand on her cheek as if wanting her to just wake up (looking so miserable Kon, despite not being the type, felt for him), closed his eyes in concentration and then finally paled to paper white. His eyes were nailed to his sister's body.</p>
<p>Kon, being the ambush-typed mod soul he was, was perfectly capable and programmed to recognizing the signs. Ichigo was about to faint.</p>
<p>And didn't that just say a goddamn whole lot.</p>
<p>The guy <em>only</em> <em>ever </em>fainted when he was made to and even then it was a fight.</p>
<p>Thus Kon was getting ready to panic again. He wasn't the half human's keeper or baby sitter or aid or any other fancy word. He also didn't do emotional very well. But on the same note he was not interested in seeing a mental break down of <em>Ichigo</em> (Hell flashed in his mind) and he <em>was</em> Ichigo's stand-in and hiding and follow up kind of came with the job description that just wasn't going to happen when Ichigo stood dressed in a shihakusho in his soul-seeing-shingami-sister's room. But Kon couldn't exactly do anything about it either, because anything more than just touching Ichigo would lead to him being ejected from the body and Ichigo being useless in his human shell.</p>
<p>Kon was saved when Ichigo shook his head like a dog, took one glance at his sister before disappearing in a flash step. (A wonder he was able to do that in his state.)</p>
<p>Breathing a sigh of relief, Kon hid the body that was cause of his troubles from view, left, closed the door behind him and mentally prepared to take over Ichigo's life for another few hours, maybe half a day, maybe a day while resting assured that Ichigo was  out of his hair.</p>
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<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Slipping back in through the window Karin wondered if she had been collected enough to hide her body. Her recollections were a bit jumbled, having had far more important things on her mind (still did, even now) but she figured she must have since her dad wasn't bawling his eyes out at his seemingly dead daughter. Still, she did ask if Rukia remembered doing anything of the kind.</p>
<p>The blank look and then increasingly distant frown wasn't promising.</p>
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